100 Days

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April 28, 2006

Day 112

Wrestling with the issues of a 16-year old girl

What I ate today

Breakfast (9 a.m.)
2 servings of oatmeal
Calories: 200
Fat: 4 grams

Lunch (1:30 p.m.)
2 slices of multi grain bread
1 can of tuna
2 servings of fat free mayo
Calories: 270
Fat: 2.5 grams

Snack (4 p.m.)
1 stick of beef jerky
Calories: 150
Fat: 2 grams

Dinner (7:30 p.m.)
1 foot long Subway Club with cheese (shhhhh. Don’t tell anybody)
Calories: 720
Fat: 19 grams

Total calories: 1,340
Total fat: 27.5 grams

Exercise: Upper body workout and 30 minutes on elliptical machine

Yes, I got cheese on my sub today. And I also kept it a healthy day. So, yeah I am awesome. I was in the mood for cheese. I got cheese. I think that once I get under 270, I might start getting cheese all the time. We’ll see.

This is kind of an odd feeling that probably has no real basis. However, I think I might be losing weight too fast. I have come up with logical explanations for the fast weight loss, but it is hard for me to believe the rate at which I am dropping pounds over the last two weeks.

After I worked out today I weighed in at just over 293 pounds. That is a three pound drop from Tuesday. Now, I know that variables surround the weigh-ins. But I can’t say that I’ve ever seen a drop like that before. Sunday That is a four-pound drop from Sunday’s 297 reading. Less than two weeks ago, when I got back from Colorado Springs, I was 303. So that means that I’ve dropped 10 pounds in 10 days. However, I ate shitty for two of those days and haven’t worked out each day.

The dramatic drop in pounds made me think something might be wrong. I just spent 15 minutes on WebMD trying to figure out what I was afflicted with. However, I have no other symptoms than weight loss and some mild fatigue (I feel groggy all day sometimes, but it usually goes away after a shower or workout.)

I think I can trace the three pounds in two days back to Wednesday. I was having a terrible day and just said “fuck it” around 5 p.m. There was a cake at work. I had three pieces. Then I went to Arby’s and capitalized on the five Arby Melts for $5.95 deal.

Then I threw up. On purpose. Yep, apparently I am bulimic, or at least had a bulimic episode. When I threw up, I noticed that most of the cake came up before the sandwiches. So let’s say that most of that went out of my system. Other than the cake and sandwiches, I ate about 500 calories Wednesday. (Oatmeal and a turkey sandwich up until the cake episode and then at night I had some baby carrots) Well, that would make it very easy to drop a pound in a day. Now, combine that with other variables and generally good food intake Thursday morning and I can see how three pounds could come off so quickly.

Oh, and one other reasonable excuse would be muscle mass. Since muscle burns more calories than fat, and I have put on some extra muscle mass (noticeable, by the way, at least to me) since I started working out, it would stand that I would burn more calories naturally.

But since the vomiting was so successful , I have decided to go bulimic.

No, that would be irresponsible.

Actually, Wednesday’s episode needs to be addressed. As my old roommates are sure to point out, there have been singular episodes like that in the past. Basically it works like this: I eat too much shit. I feel like absolute shit. I make myself throw up the shit I ate.

I’d say that, in college, this happened maybe five times. It may have been more. It drew a fair amount of fun making at my expense and made me feel bad about myself. However, it has never been a habit and it isn’t something I ever did to lose weight. I did it only to relieve unnecessary burdens I placed on my stomach.

However, since there is precedent for these episodes, and since I am now actually trying to lose weight, it comes to my attention that this sort of behavior could develop into habit. I’m not saying it will, nor am I saying it is part of a plan. But if I ate my way up to 370 pounds, who is to say I won’t replace compulsive overeating with another degenerative behavior?

Normally when I have thoughts about degenerative behavior within the diet, I am quick to dismiss them as improbabilities. But this one worries me a little bit. What happens when I hit 270 pounds and have to change the diet to something a little less extreme? Certainly it will be much easier to binge and purge than to learn how to eat sensibly. Perhaps the worst thing that could happen is that I develop an eating disorder, especially one that is almost exclusive to teenage girls. (How embarrassing would that be?) But at least I recognize the risk this early and I know that I can’t let it be a problem. I need an exit strategy for this diet because it appears that 270 isn’t as far away as I think it is.

What this tells me is that sustaining good eating habits may end up being much harder than losing the weight. I don’t want to vomit my dinner every night and I don’t want to get back up to 300 ever again.

But as I’ve said all along, this is just a matter of choice. So I’ll just have to keep making the right ones.

Posted by Dan Nied at 01:36 AM | Comments (0)

April 26, 2006

Day 110

Playoff season is bad for Dan

What I ate today

Breakfast (9 a.m.)
2 servings of oat meal
Calories: 400
Fat: 4 grams

Lunch (12 p.m.)
1 lean cuisine Swedish Meatballs meal
Calories: 280
Fat: 7 grams

Snack (4 p.m.)
1 Lean Cuisine cheese ravioli meal
Calories: 250
Fat: 6 grams

Dinner (8 p.m.)
1 Healthy Choice smoked sausage
2 slices of turkey
3 slices of multi grain bread
2 servings of fat free mayo
Calories: 515
Fat: 11.25 grams

Total calories: 1,445
Total fat: 28.25

Exercise: Upper body workout with 40 minutes on elliptical machine.

I just spent the last 10 minutes holding my breath. I didn’t know I was holding my breath until the horn sounded to end the first overtime of Game 3 in the Red Wings/Oilers series. Once the clock his 0:00 I finally remembered to breath.

I swear the playoffs could kill me dead this year. Both the Red Wings and Pistons are the top seeds in their leagues and every night there will be a different game for me to watch. Unless, of course, one of them gets beat. Then I’ll just be sad.

Luckily I am not one of those guys that needs to watch sports with beer and food. That is a weird fact, since it kind of goes against everything you would think I would be about. But the reality is that I like watching sports at home, alone, with no distractions. I detest going to bars or parties to watch games and I hate being drunk.

Of course, I am only talking about games in which I have rooting interest. If the Lions, Tigers, Pistons, Red Wings, Bowling Green football or Michigan football are on television, then I hate being anywhere but in my home. It’s like that for the Super Bowl, too. But any other game, I have no problem getting hammered.

Another fortunate thing, for this diet at least, is that I’ve never been much of a drinker when I am alone. I don’t come home and crack a beer after work. I don’t even have beer in the fridge right now. In fact, since I moved into this apartment, I have bought exactly one six pack of beer. It took me three months to drink. I currently have an unopened bottle of gin in my cupboard, but that was a gift from Christmas 2004.

So I didn’t really need much of a plan to get off booze for this diet. I think that was a big reason for success. If I had been getting a soft buzz every night after work, then it would have been tough to let that go. If you’ll remember, the only thing I said about alcohol at the beginning was that I would stick to beer when I went out. Well, by my calculations, I have gone out four times in the last three months. Three of those times have come in the last two weeks.

As for today, I thought it was pretty good. The lean cuisine meals were solid, but they created a high fat day that I usually would like to avoid.

After working out today, I weighed in at 296.2 pounds. That’s a one pound drop from Sunday. So that’s good. In the last week I have dropped somewhere around six pounds. I’m half starting to worry that the reason is something other than dieting. Maybe I have a disease or something. Let’s hope not. Everything else, I am proud to report, feels pretty good.

Alright, time to go. The second overtime is starting. I have to stop breathing now.

Posted by Dan Nied at 01:55 AM | Comments (0)

April 25, 2006

Day 109

A few pounds lost, a lot of compliments gained

What I ate today

Breakfast (8:30 a.m.)
2 servings of oatmeal
Calories: 200
Fat: 4 grams

Lunch (12 p.m.)
4 slices of bread
4 slices of turkey
2 servings of fat free mayo
1 serving of cottage cheese
1 Special K cereal bar
Calories: 520
Fat: 7 grams

Snack (4 p.m.)
Several servings of red grapes
Calories: 124 (according to calorie-count.org)
Fat: .6 grams

Dinner (7 p.m.)
4 slices of bread
4 slices of turkey
2 servings of fat free mayo
1 serving of cottage cheese
1 Special K cereal bar
Calories: 520
Fat: 7 grams

Total Calories: 1,364
Total fat: 18.6 grams

Exercise: None. I have this shoot for the stars, land on the moon sort of thing going with working out. I try to do it every day. However, there are at least two days every week when I just talk myself out of it. But if that happens, then I am at least working out three or four times per week. For the record, I worked out Sunday.

The new official weight, taken Sunday after two somewhat tough days of eating (Friday was a fuck up day.), is just under 298. So what does that mean? Well, for one I lost all the weight I gained during my trip to Colorado Springs (about three pounds) and then over two more. That was over the course of a week. So way to go, me!

Right now I am having urges almost constantly. Again, nothing particularly strong, but constant. I almost stopped into the coffee shop today to get a bagel. But I got smart at the last second. I think success is going to my head. Since last week wasn’t great, as far as eating goes (see Friday’s fuck up and the fact that I went hog wild Tuesday), and I still lost five pounds (or at least some weight once you take out all the variables) I am getting cocky about what I can eat. But my smart money is on getting down to 270 and then loosening up a bit. I don’t want to work my way down to 270, I want to sprint there. However, once I get to 270, I just want to ease it down to 240 eventually. That’s been the plan all along and I see no reason to stray right now. Still, thoughts of taking one day a week to eat whatever I want have crossed my mind. It would make sense now that the 100 days is over, but I still want to lose 28 pounds by June 8, so how smart would that be?

The compliments are flying in now. First I think I’ve seen some ladies checking me out lately, but that could be my imagination. Second, a few coworkers have given me very enthusiastic compliments.

Perhaps the most unexpected compliment came from the guy at Subway. I walked in there the other day and he said “Man, the Subway thing must be working. All of a sudden, there is less of you.”

At a tennis meet the other day, a parent I didn’t know came up to me and said “So how much weight have you lost, Dan?” So I guess everyone is noticing.

I always handle these compliments the same way. It’s like a form letter, almost. I just smile shyly and say “Thank you for noticing. But there is a long way to go still.”

I think it gets the point across. I appreciate the comments, but I’m not done.

I’ve come to a conclusion about the blog. It has become increasingly difficult to update this every day because it is rare when I can find new things to say. Sure I could recap my day in each entry, but that would be kind of boring. So I think I am going to start updating three times a week, probably on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Hopefully, at least one of those updates will be something of substance, like Friday’s recap of my entire life’s battle with weight. I hope you understand that I am doing this for the quality of the blog. You don’t need to read about how confident I am in this quest anymore. Likewise for the exploits of the Subway girl (who, I found out is, indeed, still in high school. I am such a dirty old man.) So figure that I will have an entry Wednesday, then Friday then Monday and so on.

Hopefully that doesn’t screw you guys up too much.

Posted by west at 12:38 AM | Comments (0)

April 21, 2006

Day 106

The history of my obesity

No food journal today because I am about to write a ton of words (literally. There are just over 2,000 words in this entry.) Lately I felt that I was neglecting the blog, and I wasn’t too happy about that. I want to give you guys something to read. So I decided to chronologically track my weight throughout my whole life.

I think its interesting.

So here goes.

THE OFFICIAL DAN NIED WEIGHT HISTORY:

August 10, 1979: 8 pounds, 2 ounces. It was a different time. Jimmy Carter was president, the world hadn’t even heard of ALF yet. I think there might have been hostages somewhere. I was born into this world at St. John’s hospital in scenic Detroit, Mich. I was normal size, some would say I was even cute. My hair was dirt black, my skin wrinkly and my penis almost invisible. I didn’t have to do a damn thing back then. Life was so much easier. Recently, my mother told me that I was a skinny toddler. However, the world of Dan Nied would change drastically over the next five years as my parents grew further and further apart. Somewhere between my third and fifth birthday they divorced. It was then, according to my mom, that my struggles with weight began.

1985 (First grade, age 6): 99 pounds. We had just gotten a new bathroom scale and my brother’s friend, Jimmy Slaton (who may or may not be imprisoned as I write this), convinced me to do the first of many weigh-ins. I was chunky at the time, but I was also cute. My baby teeth were ready to come out just as my adult gut was ready to come in. I don’t know if I was one of those kids they feature on the news when they talk about the obesity epidemic among American kids. But I certainly could have gone to the casting call.

1990 (Fifth grade, age 10): 202 pounds. It was quite an accomplishment when I finally got over the 200 mark. I was very proud, as was my mother. It only took 10 short years to get there. Now, 16 years later, I haven’t come close to looking back.

It happened in gym class – health day or whatever the fuck they called it – at St. Clare of Montefalco grade school in Grosse Point, Mich. Everyone weighed in and did some other shit. I don’t know why, but the only other person in the gym at the time was the teacher. I got on the digital scale, saw the 202. In case I missed it, the teacher announced it aloud. Thanks, gym teacher. That made my day. I was neither proud nor devastated, really. I was indifferent. I knew I was big and I was ok with it. At that point it was becoming my identity. I had resigned myself to the fact that I probably wouldn’t ever kiss a girl. Instead, it was time to work on my comedy. Because that is how a fat kid wins everyone over.

I believe, with some uncertainty, that this was when my mother decided to take me to Weight Watchers. I don’t know what my weight was at that time, but I do know I lost 16 pounds in three months. I think the problem came when my friend (also a youth fatty) and I convinced our mothers to take us out to dinner after every meeting. At first we got salads and healthy shit. After awhile we started ordering burritos. I think that was where the weight watchers plan went awry. Most likely, if it wasn’t for those burritos, I would have gotten a lot more ass in high school. (Actually, we can simplify that last statement to: I would have gotten ass in high school.

1993 (Eighth grade, age 12): 240 pounds. During the summer, my grandfather died. For some reason, that meant we had to move from the east side of Detroit to the west side. This is where I really began to develop. I went from St. Clare to St. Thomas Aquinas elementary for eighth grade. It was a small class, maybe 18 kids in my grade. Since I had been working on my comedy, I made quick friends.

I remember one parent saying, at a basketball meeting, that they “now had a 6-1, 240 pound power house.” That would have been correct if I had been able to make a layup. Looking back, I wasn’t really that fat then. It wasn’t until recently that I think I actually got fat. I think I was just big boned and overweight for most of my life. But eighth grade was a good time. I remember rat tails (not on me, but on my friends). My first brush with meathead homo jokes (my friend John making me very uncomfortable by whipping his dick out in someone’s basement) and getting suspended from the basketball team twice for play fighting.

But I only spent one year with my new friends at St. Thomas. The next year was high school. That’s where, physically, I started to become me.

1995 (Sophomore year of high school, age 14): 306 pounds. There was a growth spurt between my freshman and sophomore years. By my memory, I entered Dearborn (Mich.) Divine Child High School about 6-1, 260. By sophomore year, I had grown two inches and gained 40 pounds. Was I attractive? No. Had I kissed a girl yet? No. (Incidentally, if you are waiting for me to reveal the moment when I actually did kiss a girl for the first time, then stop reading. That information isn’t coming out. I will tell you about throwing up on myself in the shower, bowel movements, stretch marks and a lot of other embarrassing shit, but nothing is more embarrassing than when I first kissed a girl. Ok, you got it out of me. I was a sophomore in college. However, that was definitely due more to my lack of recognizing kissing opportunities than it was to my chubbiness.)

1996-97 (Senior year of high school, age 17): 286 pounds. I stayed at or around 300 through junior year. However, at the end of football season our coach called me into his office and said: “You can’t start for us at 300 pounds. You have to lose weight.”

So what did I do? Well, I cut back on what I was eating and worked out like a madman. I dropped a cool 14 pounds over the summer and started at right tackle my senior season. If you will let me be a meathead for a second: We were 8-1 that year and should have won the state title. But the Michigan football playoff system was fucked up and we didn’t get in. They actually changed the playoff system because of our team. Now every team with six wins makes the playoffs. Great. Also, I was a decent player. I got a looks from some (1) Division II schools, and a few more from D-III schools. However, I decided to forego my budding football career to become a sports journalist.

That quest took me down to Ohio, Bowling Green State University to be exact. (Ay Ziggy Zoomba!)

December 1999 (Junior year of college, age 20): 300 pounds. This was where the ups and downs really started. Over Christmas break my oldest brother, Mike (also 6-3, 300 at the time), decided we were both too fat. So he bet me $100 that he could lose more weight than me over the next four months. I took him up on it. I didn’t really start until February. However, when I did (and this has been mentioned several times in the blog) I dropped quite a bit of weight. In fact, I think that every pound I lost on that bet came between Feb. 1 and St. Patrick’s day.

And that got me down to:

April 2000 (Age 20): 267 pounds. Oddly enough, Mike and I both lost 33 pounds during the bet. We each weighed 267 on weigh-in day.

The bet was a wash, but on the bright side, 267 is the least I can remember weighing in my adult life. The picture I posted about a month ago, the one of me in a bar with Bryce and Angie, was taken during this time. I would have to say that this was the best I have ever looked in my life ever. I think this was the year that my roommate Ian and I had a gentleman’s bet to see who could make out with the most girls over the school year. Ian won, but by a slim margin: 13-12, I believe. I think I might have led him in boobs touched, though.

By the way, because of a lack of game, obesity and my catholic upbringing, I was still a virgin at this point.

But not for long.

August 2000 (age 21): 275-280 pounds. After I lost the 33 pounds from the bet, I did my internship at USA Hockey in Colorado Springs. I was away from friends and family for the first time and I decided to have a good time. My weight wasn’t on my mind because I looked pretty damn good going out there. I looked pretty damn good coming back, too. I worked out regularly while I was out there (at the US Olympic training complex) and was pretty happy with myself. I didn’t get laid while I was out there (I should have tried harder) however, once I got back to Bowling Green and the land of horny college sluts, it wasn’t long before I became a man.

The gory details of my first time aside, it also wasn’t long before I met Heather, my first (and only) serious girlfriend. She was nice and cute and she talked a lot (which I like). However, once she became my girlfriend in Sept. 2000, I realized that I had someone who liked me just for me, which may have been the worst thing possible for my physical appearance. We ate and ate and ate and never got any exercise. By the time the relationship had run its course, I was the heaviest I had ever been. Since I don’t like taking responsibility, I blame Heather for my ultimate peak of 370.

February 2002 (fifth year of college, age 22): 335 pounds. In a classic dickhead move, I think I broke up with Heather somewhere between Feb. 12 and Feb. 15. Heather, if you are reading this, I am sorry.

But the problem was, I was physically huge when we broke up. Meanwhile, Heather was still hot. So she got the last laugh by finding much better rebounds than I did.

Little did I know that I wouldn’t reach the underside of 300 until four years later. (Five years total, considering that I probably hit 300 again around Christmas, 2000.)

Summer 2003 (Age 23): 300 pounds. I had reached 340 during the winter and I wasn’t too happy about it. So I got just enough motivation to start walking in the park every day. That turned into running short distances. Interestingly, I started the whole walking in the park thing in February. I liked walking in the winter for some reason. When summer came, I lost interest. Why? I’ll never know. I knew I had to lose weight because, the first day I went to the park, I did so only because I broke my parents’ treadmill first.

My diet at that point consisted largely of Subway double meat clubs. So there is precedence for Subway in my diet.

Oct. 2004 (age 25): 320 pounds. This is an estimate. However, the time was interesting. I had been out of the journalism business for a year and had worked some horrible temp jobs around the Detroit area. I applied for dozens of writing jobs and got only a few callbacks. Finally a small paper in Colorado decided to hire me. (Want the name of the town? Ok, this is the only time I will reveal it: Sterling, Colorado.) I gathered up my friend Guy, filled my car with my stuff and moved 1,700 miles away from everyone I knew. I haven’t left yet. I am trying to leave. Believe me.

Jan. 4, 2006 (age 26): 370 pounds (approximately). Once I got to Sterling, I had nothing to do. I didn’t really know too many people and I never had anyone to do anything with. There were few attractive women in town. I really had no one to impress. So I ate. A lot. I got fatter. In my first 14 months here, I gained 50 pounds and was so fucking fat that, when I went home for Christmas, strippers wouldn’t even give me lap dances (Actually, I had $20 so of course they gave me lap dances. They also told me I was cute and really their type. And they said that if they didn’t have a boyfriend, they would definitely date me. Too bad that one stripper was engaged. She was really into me.) Somewhere around the middle of Dec. 2005, I got a great idea to go on a really strict diet and keep track of it on one of those fancy internet sites.

It worked.

April 14, 2006. 299.2 pounds: I lost 70 pounds in 100 days.

April 18, 2006: 303 pounds. And I gained four the following weekend.

Posted by Dan Nied at 02:25 AM | Comments (0)

April 20, 2006

Day 105

Setting my priorities straight

Sometimes I worry just to worry.

Sometimes it just makes for a little bit of drama.

And sometimes, I never know what to expect. So here I am, feeling almost foolish that yesterday I was concerned about the direction of this diet. Then today was almost a perfect day as far as eating goes. My only tiny mistake was forgetting to eat a snack at 9 p.m. and then having some grapes and turkey around 10:30. I am planning on going to bed around 1, so that might not be enough time to digest.

But oh well. What are ya gonna do?

My thoughts lately have been mostly about my job situation. I feel like I’m at a crossroads in my career. I don’t want to bore anyone with this, since I’m pretty sure everyone goes through it at least once in life. However, I need to decide if I can be happy being a sportswriter but getting paid like a janitor. My other option, I suppose, is to try to find a job doing something else (public relations comes to mind) and get paid more while not being as happy with what I do. This decision is being made easier by the fact that I couldn’t me more fed up with my situation right now. Some aspects of my job are nagging at me constantly and my enthusiasm is diminishing by the day. And when there isn’t any enthusiasm, there is nothing to soften the sting of having a degree and making $10.50 an hour.

So lately, career has overtaken weight as the top concern in my life. That’s a good thing since those are probably the two most important things I have to get right. And if this is to be a lifestyle change, then they are of equal importance.

Posted by Dan Nied at 01:59 AM | Comments (0)

April 19, 2006

Yeah, that's right

I think I have gone from fat to curvaceous

Posted by west at 02:57 AM | Comments (0)

Here I come

I am menacing with my new short haircut. Don't fuck with me and my blue polo shirt with gold horizontal stripes that my mother bought me last summer.

Posted by west at 02:51 AM | Comments (0)

Day 104

Cause for alarm?

News: Photos taken on Day 99 are up on the site right now. Take a look.

I am a bit alarmed right now, somewhat worried that my mental state is changing a bit. Today was kind of weird. I had to do an interview over lunch and, for lack of a better choice, we went to Pizza Hut. It was pizza buffet time at the old shithouse, a time that used to bring me great joy and even greater physical strain.

I got through lunch just fine, I guess. I had two small slices of olive pizza and a small salad, but when I got done I just wanted more. So I just decided, without really thinking about it, that I would take today off. It was an easy decision to make, and that troubles me. I wouldn’t be worried if I hadn’t just come back from a three day binge with the goal of getting permanently under 300 very soon. So I suppose the consequences create room to question my dedication right now. Of course there have been days like this in the past, all were isolated incidents that didn’t exceed the day in question.

But after last weekend, how could I really justify going off today? Was it simply the fact that I tasted pizza and immediately craved more, and that just happened to be a craving stronger than my will at the moment? Or was there something in the back of my mind telling me I needed to celebrate a little bit more?

Certainly I don’t feel this is a cause for alarm. However, this behavior definitely needs to be monitored. In my visions of failure on this diet, it always goes like this: I drop a bunch of weight, I feel good about myself, I decide I’ve earned a break, the break never ends. Two months later, I’ve put all the weight back on, and I have to have drastic plastic surgery to hide from all the people who had gone out of their way to mention the weight loss and how good I looked.

Now, we don’t want that to happen. At least I don’t. So this is easily correctable. Basically, I just don’t go off the diet any time soon. But what I want to see is how bad the urges are. I think the level of the urges will indicate a level of complacency. Am I happy being 300 pounds right now? I don’t think I am. But maybe I am happy with the initial 71 pounds lost. Maybe that’s the problem. When I hit 330 I tried to imagine 330 as the starting point for this diet. Now I think I have to do the same with 300. It really would be a tragedy to get two-thirds of the way to my ultimate goal and then turn back.

And I suppose that is why I am a bit worried by such a subtle slip. What I ate today wasn’t even that bad. I paid attention to the rule of cheating within the diet. I just had a very big dinner of some healthy choice meals and a bunch of other stuff. But the fact of the matter is that the stakes are highest now that some, but not all, success has been achieved. So while I am not really worried right now, I see cause for concern. But then again, I will probably let you know tomorrow that Wednesday went off without a hitch.

Posted by Dan Nied at 02:46 AM | Comments (0)

April 18, 2006

Day 103

Rocky Mountain High

I’ve got to apologize for not writing anything last night. I wanted to write this grand entry describing the entire trip to Colorado Springs and everything I learned about myself and such, but I was too damn tired to do it. I am pretty tired tonight, as well, so we’re not going to get into it too much.

As for the diet, here is a rundown of what I ate this weekend off the top of my head: Two pasta dishes from restaurants, about six slices of pizza (Friday night, stone fucking drunk. I barely remember it), four bagels with cream cheese, a roast beef sandwich at the Rockies game, a grilled chicken pita from Pita Pit, a Taste of Italy Sub from Subway, a chicken and Portobello mushroom salad with bleu cheese dressing and about 25 beers.

And when it was all over, I decided that it was a pretty good weekend of eating healthy.

Why? Because I was smart. All that was over the course of three days. My main concern was not getting horrible stomach pains, and I did just fine. I only finished one out of three restaurant meals in one sitting. The others I took home for later. I split the Taste of Italy sub into two, eating the second half three hours after the first and at the Rockies’ game I got myself a light roast beef sandwich instead of the foot long brat my friend Kevin was complaining about all night. I only had one mild stomach pain, and that was from the pizza. I didn’t feel great Saturday morning, but I was able to move around. By the way, while stone fucking drunk Friday night, Kevin asked me what I wanted on the pizza. At first I said double cheese. But then I remembered what that would do to me. We settled on black olives. So even drunk, I am smart. By the way, I passed out at the bar about an hour before that.

I fell in love with Colorado Springs all over again this weekend. I lived there for three months a six years ago when I did my internship at USA Hockey (Odd fact, Kevin just got a job with USA Hockey and he has my old cubicle. Weird.) I didn’t really appreciate it then because I was under 21 for most of my stay. But after living in this town I am in now, I realized how lucky the people in Colorado Springs are. They get to walk outside every morning and see mountains bearing down on them from less than a mile away. The scenery is something only God could have planned. There are interesting people there and some decent bars. Basically, I want to move there. We’ll see if I can make it happen.

On Sunday Kevin and I went up into the mountains to look around. We found a trail about 8,000 feet up and decided to explore. I have read before about the effects of altitude on your system, but I didn’t really understand. Now I do. I guess I had never been up that high before, but just getting out of the car felt like playing 10 minutes of full court basketball. I wanted to stop as soon as my feet hit the rocks. Luckily, after about 20 minutes I adjusted and we had a grand old time.

In case you are wondering, I was back on the diet today. I worked out and did the elliptical for 40 minutes. I had 1,310 calories and 28.5 grams of fat.

So yeah, its not that hard.

Posted by Dan Nied at 01:28 AM | Comments (0)

April 14, 2006

Day 100

The moment you've all been waiting for

You knew the weigh in on the 100th day wasn’t going to be easy, right?

If you thought I would waltz into the gym this morning and pump out a 298 reading on the scale, then walk off with a smile on my face then, you just don’t know me very well.

I got up super early today because I had to go guest host on the morning radio show here in town. So at 6:30 I rose and realized that I didn’t really have to be in the studio until about 7:30. I was excited, almost like a kid on Christmas. This is the day where, if everything goes well, I will A) get under 300 for the first time in years, B) go to Denver, one of America’s finest cities, for lunch, C) see my old roommate in Colorado Springs, my old place of living D) Get filthy drunk and enjoy good food in moderation.

So it was easy to get up. I went right to the gym and decided I would just weigh in and leave. That is, until I got on the scale.

It was a bit of a kick in the crotch when I weighed in. All I wanted was a 299.9 reading. That would have made me very happy. So what happened? I hit 300 on the fucking dot!

Now, that is a one pound loss since Tuesday and progress was made. No doubt 300 is a milestone for me, and something that I was pretty happy to achieve. But I wanted to be under 300.

So I looked over at the elliptical machine. Looked at the clock and decided to fucking go for it. I climbed on for 22 minutes, a quick 400 calories, and got the fuck off.

I weighed in again.

299.2.

And there you have it. I did it. I got under 300 for the first time in nearly six years. Sure, maybe I had to shed some water weight to do it, and maybe the celebratory two parmesan bagels with jalapeno cheddar cream cheese put me back over the 300 mark, but who the fuck cares? I never planned on being under 300 after this weekend. But I did it, even if it was for a few minutes.

So success, I suppose, is the final result of the 100 days.

However, in no way am I done. As my friend Guy pointed out, now it is just a happy jaunt down to 270. And then it will be the same thing down to 250 and 240 and 230, if I choose to go that far.

So I don’t have any smug pride on my face today because this thing isn’t over. But the fact that I lost 71 pounds in 100 days is an amazing accomplishment, one I will talk about for years and years. A year ago I could only imagine this kind of thing. But now, with some simple changes, I am living it. I really hope I can be an example to every fatty out there who just can’t figure out how to lose weight. It’s not that hard, really. All you need is a minimal knowledge of your body and the desire to really change.

Thank you guys, so much for following me through this time. It meant a lot to me that so many people took time out of their lives to keep up with this journey. There is no doubt that I never would have done this without this blog. This may have been the best idea I have ever had. I needed to do this for someone other than myself, and you guys provided that extra pressure. When I wanted to blow this diet up, I always thought about the readers I would be disappointing in the process. You guys took a rooting interest in this quest and I knew that I couldn’t let you down. So keep me going all the way to 270, please. Because now I am simply less fat than I was before. I don’t just want to be less fat. I want to be healthy.

And if you keep doing it for me, I will keep doing it for you.

Thanks.

Posted by west at 11:42 AM | Comments (0)

Day 99

Answering mail a day before 100

What I ate today: We got a lot of typing ahead of us, so nothing too detailed here. But here is the rundown: 3 cans of tuna, 3 servings of fat free mayo, 4 slices of bread, Footlong Subway Club (no, not all in one meal)

Total calories: 1,315
Total Fat: 18.5 grams

Exercise: None. My scheduling was poor today. Work at 9, impromptu press conference at 11, haircut at noon, lunch at 1, video games at 1:30, extra 4 hours of work at 3, write this at 9. I meant to get a workout in there somewhere. I failed. Also, I am a tad bit worried because working out hasn’t been easy to do the last few days. I am not into it right now. Hopefully that will pass.

News: The official 100 days photos will be coming on Monday or Tuesday. I am worried by the amount of chin fat I still have. It seems to have not dwindled a bit. I will get to that next week. Tomorrow, I am weighing in first thing in the morning and then coming back to do a quick blog entry for Day 100. Then I am out of town. Leave comments, congratulations, condolences, cursings or anything else. Please. Feedback is always good. Of course, I will then be back Monday with a regular entry.

All right now, kids. It is time for me to answer questions and comments. Some of these might take a little back knowledge of the blog to really understand, but I’ll try to bring the uneducated along. Settle in and let’s begin.

From: Matt Sussman
Dan, I don't think statutory rape is a recommended weight loss plan. I have no medical backing on that, but just trust me on it.
You're in the homestretch, dude. Slip in under the three bills mark by next week. But don't cut off any limbs to accomplish it. You'll regret it later.

Yeah, I agree. No one ever lost weight through statutory rape. The Subway girl has become something of a muse during this 100 days. Although, I really couldn’t ever think about any kind of relationship with her. Some things are best admired from afar. And while I might entertain myself with mental questions about her life, I feel like she is just an example of what I am working towards. I don’t really want to do anything that would jeopardize my ignorance about her life. I don’t want to know how old she is or what she eats for breakfast or what bands she listens to. She is a metaphor, sort of. She is just someone who I find interesting on a basic level. Nothing sinister in my mind here. But I think everyone needs something like that in their life, right? The random interesting things that make you feel good for a few minutes. I’ll admit it, when she does small things like write my name on the wrapper, I like it. It makes a fella feel good, whether he wants to or not. I’m not gay.

From: Diana Hartman
Blogcritics would be happy to have you continue posting!

Diana is an editor at Blogcritics. So I am thinking that she has some clout there. Quickly, I want to thank the people at Blog Critics, particularly the editors, who post this mindless crap every day and don’t ever send hate emails. Not surprisingly, many of the positive comments I’ve gotten have been from Blogcritics editors who have taken a liking to what I am doing here. So that’s good. This blog will be on Blogcritics until I am done with it.

From Name: Mark Sahm
I don't believe I've commented before on one of your posts, although I've periodically checked in. But I give you some props for having the cajones to put your struggle on display like this.

Anyway, I used to cut a lot of weight for wrestling (no, not WWE, but HS and college), so I know a few things about nutrition. I felt with day 100 closing in, I'd point out some problematic tendencies I noticed and some possible solutions.

First, I think one thing you're not watching enough is your sodium intake aka salt. Beef jerky (which you eat every day), condiments on your Subway heroes, and even the coating on your sunflower seeds contain high amounts.

While sodium is necessary to a good metabolism, too much causes water retention which can make you feel sluggish, and it also leads to high blood pressure. If you're checking labels for calories and fat, keep an eye on sodium too. Google 'sodium intake' and you'll find lots of reading material.

Second, I don't notice a lot of fruit in your diet entries. While I'm not a big fruit eater right now either, I do know that it has a lot of benefits to dieters. Green leafy veggies are good as well.

Third, are you taking any daily vitamins? You don't mention them if you do. Most people don't need to, because they get enough vitamins in their regular meals. But you might need to, if the bulk of your intake is not very rich in certain nutrients.

I try to take daily multivitamins, but I forget a lot. As for sodium, the short term effects on weight worry me sometimes, but from what I understand the long term effects aren’t that bad. And when I started this I decided that I would only try to track calories and fat. It was important to me that this didn’t become too complicated. I figured sodium would be the most complicated thing to keep track of because it is such a mystery to me. What the hell does it do other than make you retain water? If I was smart, though, I would have cut out sodium this last week. But I’m not that smart, so I didn’t. Fruits and vegetables come and go. Vegetables are a staple in one way or another and fruit always goes bad on me. Although I did polish off a shit ton of grapes this week.

From: Joe
You're doing a really great job losing weight and all and I've got no complaints with that. But please, PLEASE next time you decide to lose weight, 1) weigh yourself on one, and one scale alone. Do not weigh yourself on multiple scales, it'll only confuse you. 2) if you are on the upper side of a scales weight limit, to improve accuracy buy two scales and put each foot on each. Add the total. You improve the accuracy by dividing random errors by two and the scales are probably going to be in a more 'linear' region of weight measurement. But apart from that, I do admire what you've done.

Jesus Christ, you slip up once and someone calls you out on it. I used the same scale for almost all of the 100 days. But one day it was brought to my attention that the scale I was using was four pounds heavy. So I went to another scale. The next day there was a brand new scale for me. I decided to use that one, as it was logically the most accurate. So I am now on the new scale now. Thank’s for being concerned.

From: Vicki
Just started reading your 100 day life story from the UK! Good work, well done you. I think you should also keep the diary going as it is an inspiration to see someone actually doing well. Best of luck for the future.

It is the WORLDWIDE internet, you know. Greetings from Shittown, USA.

From: Jacob
Cut your hair you dirty hippy. You look like a gay nerd!

From: Cameron
Hey John Denver, GET A HAIRCUT! Definately looking thinner though.

I did cut my hair, douchebags.

From: Chris
Keep it up and that 270 mark will be just around the corner. Just out of curiosity, did you eat the whole pizza, and would the results (stomach problems) be the same if you only had some of the pizza, and maybe a salad to go along with it?

My feeling is the pizza incident leading to mind blowing stomach pain could have been avoided with moderation. That should be my next big goal. Maybe, in retrospect, I shouldn’t have added a pound of cheese and a pound of pepperoni. That may have been a mistake. I will test out the moderation theory this weekend.

From: Brendan
Healthy weight loss is 1-2 pounds a week, but i'm guessing for someone as fat as you it would be 3-4 a week. So you're actually doing just fine. You could have cheated and been sucking down ephedra pills and jamming your finger down your throat and lost the 100 pounds by now, but we all know you'd gain it right back the minute you stopped. Like all your other failed diets.

It’s funny because, back when we were living together in college, Brendan was hooked on ephedra. I have never tried it.

From: Paul
What your doing here is behaving like a kid with a new toy. It's fun when it's new but eventually the novelty wears off, you've seen all there is to see with it, and you get bored. Hey, even Hugh Heffner gets bored with banging the hottest chicks on the planet day in and day out. This is simply human nature.

Your 100 day stint is a great start but its time to switch gears and start viewing this as the marathon that it is, not a sprint. In all honesty, the second phase of getting to your target weight is going to be harder than the first.

Proper eating isn't fun, but having man titties and isn't fun either. Adjust your mindset towards the diet and put things in perspective, othewise you are bound to return to the land of man titties.

Actually, Paul, there are advantages to having man titties. However, none of them outweigh the advantages of not having man titties. I think my resolve will be tested in the coming weeks and months, because it would be really easy for me to classify this as a success right now. Of course, it is not a success yet. I still weigh 300 pounds and that’s not good. It is kind of depressing that I have gotten to a point where I can take pride in weighing 300 pounds. Should someone under 8 feet tall really be proud of such a thing?

From: Michelle
I've been following along the entire time - your blog is required reading as I'm doing my show prep. I've got that media bond with you (I'm in radio), and I understand how serious the food temptation is. There's always some sort of crap in the kitchen or spread out at events, and God knows media people will eat anything. Add the beer at station parties, and well - I know how easily the weight piles on.

I've also worked in really small towns and endured everything that goes along with that. No need to list it all; I just KNOW. I feel your pain.

Anyway, I've been silently cheering you on these 85 days. As I sit here at the board shoveling in Wheat Thins, my only advice is to press on through the misery. Focus on getting a new job, and how great it would be to show up there as the person you've dedicated yourself to becoming.

Damn, that was a long sentence. Good thing I'm not the writer!

Gotta get the media brethren in there. Us media types are smarter than everyone else, so we have a special bond. Thanks for the advice Michelle, I will be powering through the misery, though oddly there has been very little misery so far. By the way, Michelle, talk this blog up on the show if you can. I'll do an interview if you want. Alright, I'm pandering.

From Chantal (a different one)
I just want to let you know that you are doing a great job. I was wondering did you ever figure out how much fat you should have in a day?

I only eat 20 grams of fat a day. It worked great for me the first time when I was a teennager, but 8 years and 3 boyfrinds later I gained the weight back. I ate fast food to much and snacked with my boyfriends. They are junk food addicts. Anyway I'm starting my diet again. I'm in day 5 and I hope I can lose the weight.

The daily recommended amount of fat for a 2,000 calorie diet is 65 grams. Obviously I don’t want to go that high, but I never figured out a good guideline for fat intake. I figure that if I am between 17-25 grams per day I am fine. And I don’t sweat it if I am between 25-30. If I go over 30, then I classify it as a bad day. However, I have absolutely no reason to believe that over 30 grams of fat is a bad day. It’s just how I feel.

From: Liz
you know if I wasn’t married I just might have a crush on you......all dirty slob and all!!

Admit it, Liz, even though you ARE married you have a crush on me. It happens. I am dreamy.

From: Matt
Let's say you lose your weight. Get the girl. Get a job for SI. Your first job for SI is to cover the World Series. On the way to the first game, you meet a cover model on the plane, she loves your witty writing style. She says she wants to have drinks with you. So you go to the bar, watch the game on tv while having drinks with the model. After the game, you excuse yourself from the bar, go write the game up and send it in. Editors love it.

Did you cheat on your girl? Did you cheat SI?

If you have to justify it..... It's cheating. If you can look in the mirror (with your shirt off) while eating it and be happy, it ain't cheating.

In that scenario, I definitely didn’t cheat on my girl. Not if I didn’t at least see this model naked. Otherwise it is conversation. That is an easy call and you don’t have to justify it.

I suppose if I didn’t go to the game I would sort of be cheating SI (people have been fired for that). But I could sleep at night if I did a solid job in writing the story.

However, I understand your point. Still, I don’t think it is as easy as that. I think sometimes people justify things they shouldn’t. For example, I feel kind of guilty about taking the day off Friday. I told my boss this and he said “You earned your vacation, you should enjoy it.” That made a lot of sense to me.

Now, that very much relates to weight loss. If I cheated in the early stages then I had to give myself a reason why it was ok and promise myself I would make it up. But why, If I can go 15 strait days without cheating, should I fret about one meal? I shouldn’t. The only time cheating is dangerous is when it can become a habit. Right now, as I have said numerous times, I feel like I can cheat one day and go right back on the diet the next day. What troubles me about cheating right now, though, is that I want to make this a lifestyle change and not a temporary solution. I think I need to learn to eat in moderation and not have entire pizzas with extra pounds of cheese.

What would alarm me is if I ate that pizza and said “Man, I forgot how fucking good pizza is. I should get another one tomorrow.” A troubling story I heard the other day was from a fellow fatty friend who just started a diet. He wasn’t thinking one morning and found himself in the McDonald’s drive thru. Right after he ordered he remembered he was on a diet and pulled out of McDonalds. Good resolve, I think, but if you have to remind yourself that you are on a diet, then I question your mental commitment.

If that kind of thing happened to me in the beginning of this, I wouldn’t have survived it. I would have said “fuck it” and gotten my Egg McMuffins. As I've said before, every bad eating decision I make is carefully thought about. However, I am past the stage of having to make it up to myself if I cheat. What goes through my mind is how long it has been since I last cheated, how the week is going as a whole and whether or not there is a healthy alternative that will quench the craving. Even when I cheated early (the sausage gravy incident) I was two weeks in and wanted to see if I could control myself. I found out I couldn’t, which was a good thing to know because it probably saved some cheating in the long run.

Sorry about rambling on about nothing, but I think that sometimes you just gotta let go and have some fun, even if you feel a little guilty about it. Most of us are too hard on ourselves when it comes to fun. We don’t think we should be having it, especially if there is a goal we are working towards. But sometimes that fun ultimately leads to the better fulfillment of the goal. The key is knowing what you are working towards and having a solid idea of how you are going to get there.

Posted by Dan Nied at 12:24 AM | Comments (0)

April 12, 2006

Day 97

The scale got me again today

What I ate today

Breakfast (10 a.m.)
2 serving of cottage cheese
2 Special K snack bars
Calories: 270
Fat: 6 grams

Lunch (12:30 p.m.)
1 Healthy Choice smoked Sausage
2 slices of multi grain bread
1 serving of fat free mayo
Calories: 385
Fat: 9.75 grams

Snack (4 p.m.)
1 stick of beef jerkey
Calories: 120
Fat: 2 grams

Dinner (7 p.m.)
4 chicken filets
3 low fat tortilla shells
1 serving of Just 2 Good bleu cheese
Calories: 350
Fat: 6 grams

Total calories: 1,125
Total fat: 23.75 grams

Exercise: 40 minutes on the elliptical trainer. Burned 740 calories.

I told myself I would not look at the scale until Friday. That was a steadfast rule. I didn’t want to be encouraged or discouraged by the results. I figured I could just weigh in Friday and be satisfied with whatever result I got.

Goddamn that new digital scale at the gym. It got me today.

I got on that fucking thing after my elliptical workout. It was there, I was bored, it looked so fun. This was the same scale, by the way, that gave me the 310 reading last week and then gave me the 306 reading Friday. Since it is just out of the box, I have to figure it to be pretty accurate.

So I went for it. I took my shoes off and weighed in.

301.

That’s good. That’s really good. Now, after a 40 minute cardio workout, I imagine that was a bit lower than the actual truth, but remember, Friday I won’t be weighing in until after an identical 40 minute workout. Also, last Thursday (at 306) I weighed in after a cardio workout. So I like the 301 reading.

So that builds some added tension going into Friday. Can I get under 300 pounds? If I do, I might actually cry. I might hug whoever is next to me (please be a hot chick). And if I do, I will almost certainly be back over 300 pounds by Monday. Indeed, I do not expect to weight under 300 when I get back from my weekend adventure in Colorado Springs.

But, you see, this time is different than the others. This time 300, while a landmark, is just a number. When I get hammered in Colorado Springs this weekend, I will not be celebrating getting under 300 pounds. I will be celebrating the end of a very successful 100 day life altering quest. While I won’t be able to celebrate 100 pounds in 100 days, I will celebrate the fact that the 100 pound mark isn’t far off at all. I will celebrate success in a major area of my life.

It will be a party of triumph, because I’ll know that now 100 pounds isn’t a goal, but a formality. I’ll be enjoying spirits like winners do. The spoils, because new thoughts have entered my mind, thoughts that would have only been wishes last Christmas. Now I am thinking past 100 pounds. Maybe 130. 140. 150? Where will it stop? That is the only question I can’t answer right now.

But as for 100 pounds, that is a question that I feel has already been answered.

Posted by Dan Nied at 01:17 AM | Comments (0)

April 11, 2006

Day 96

Subway, we have to part ways (sort of)

What I ate today

Breakfast (10 a.m.)
1 serving of lowfat cottage cheese
2 Special K snack bars
Calories: 260
Fat: 4.5 grams

Lunch (12:30 p.m.)
2 slices of multi grain bread
2 servings of turkey breast
1 serving of fat free mayo
Calories: 205
Fat: 3 grams

Snack (4 p.m.)
1 stick of beef jerkey
Calories: 150
Fat: 1.5 grams

Dinner (7:15 p.m.)
1 Subway Club
Calories: 640
Fat: 12 grams

Total Calories: 1,255
Total fat: 21 grams (good movie)

Exercise: I had to squeeze a workout in, so I didn’t get to cardio. But I did do a mean upper body workout.

Limits have officially been set for Subway. But it’s not because I am growing tired of America’s favorite faux deli. It is because of money. A few quick calculations told me that I had to start keeping a $50 per week budget if I want to have enough money to live it up when I go back home to Detroit in June.

So Subway is limited to Mondays and Fridays. That’s it. Maybe Sundays if I have some cash left over. That is probably just as well, I was going there way too much. It definitely became kind of a crutch. But it was a good crutch to have because it got the job done: satisfying my urges without jeopardizing the diet.

You guys can send all the anti-Subway mail you want, it doesn’t change the fact that without it I would probably still weigh 350 pounds. Throughout this process, Subway was like the girlfriend all your friends hate. They constantly nag you to get rid of her and wonder why you can’t realize that you are better off without her. But you feel that girlfriend makes your life so much better. Maybe that girlfriend does crazy stuff in bed, or is exactly what you are looking for in a woman. Maybe she has a different, non-crazy side that only comes out when you are alone. That’s what Subway was for me. We had some very good times, but alas, we must partially part ways. Subway was absolutely perfect for me, providing an amazing amount of satisfaction with the perfect amount of calories. Sure, there were a few times a Subway club took me over my calorie limit, but I learned to forgive. The only way in which Subway committed me harm was by costing $6 a sandwich. It was $8 after I bought the extra large drink, which is still a staple.

And so we part ways, at least for the middle three days of the week. But perhaps now I will learn to appreciate the sandwiches a little bit more. Maybe they will taste better. Maybe I will lose weight faster. Right now, anything is a possibility.

Today was a good day. I watched some baseball, did my radio show and even got bitched out by a coach. I called this person to do a story on her team because they were doing so well. Instead of granting an interview, she told me how disappointed she was in my coverage of her team (whose town, by the way, makes up two percent of our readership.)

“I am very disappointed because you don’t give us any coverage at all” she said.

“Um, what do you think I’m calling for now?” I said.

File this under people who just like to complain. After five minutes of her telling me how much coverage her team deserves (did I mention that their town makes up two percent of our readership? TWO percent. TWO.) she decided that now she didn’t want any stories done on her team. That makes sense. I guess I missed my chance. Now I’ll just have to find stories in the other 24 teams I cover right now. How am I gonna do that? It’s gonna be tough. This is really going to break the hearts of two percent of our readers.

Sorry, I had to vent. This is why I hate my job.

So here’s what I have planned for this week. There will be regular updates on Wednesday and Thursday. Friday morning I will answer questions and comments (so if you have any questions or comments, please get them to me by Thursday afternoon). Then Friday morning I will wake up, go to the gym, work out and then get the final weigh in for the 100 days (299 or bust). I’ll come back home and post the final entry in the 100 days Friday afternoon. So by that time, we’ll know the tally. It is all very exciting, I know. I am on the edge of my seat right now.

Posted by Dan Nied at 01:42 AM | Comments (0)

April 10, 2006

Days 93, 94 and 95

Lying around and doing nothing

First thing’s first. I got back on the scale Friday after working out and it was at 306, which is kind of what I expected. The 310 reading seemed much too high and the 302 reading was much too low. I let my body balance out a bit and came up with 306. That is very good news because 300 is within my grasp. I can taste it, much like a sausage pizza with extra cheese.

This was a pretty boring weekend. I tell myself over and over again that I like to relax and do nothing at all times. But then when I have a chance to relax and do nothing, I hate it. But then I have no other options so I don’t do anything. Either that or I am not very creative. But really there is nothing to do around here. I need a tennis partner.

So here is a complete rundown of my entire weekend.

Friday
Got out of work at 7 p.m. Went to Subway, the cute girl was there. She knows my name now (since it is in the paper about five times a day) and calls me by it every time I go in. She even wrote it on my sandwich Friday night. So that’s good, I guess. Although there is no way she is out of high school. I am a dirty, dirty man.

I kept up with the dirty man theme around 1 a.m. For the first time in my life I subscribed to a porn site. That’s right, I am one of the newest members of sweetkrissy.com. It’s not really porn as much as it is just a really hot girl being naked. Why did I do it? Sheer boredom. (And the fact that I can’t find free naked pictures of this girl anywhere on the web. It was getting to be a little frustrating and time consuming. And yes, I am a little uncomfortable talking about this.)

So then I went to bed and knocked out the last 30 pages of Ball Four, Jim Bouton’s recounting of the 1969 baseball season. It was the second time I read it. This time was just as good as the original.

But before I did all that I watched the 2006 Best Picture Academy Award winner Crash on Showtime. It was fucking awesome. Fantastic movie. I’ll leave it at that.

Saturday
I woke up at 11 to the sound of hammering. It was the guys putting in the new kitchen windows for everyone. They still haven’t gotten to my apartment, even though they said they would be here by Friday. I really am not crazy about the idea of letting two guys into my apartment. It will be awkward, what with me not wearing pants.

Worked out at about 4 p.m. All I did was 40 minutes on the elliptical. Felt pretty good.

Then I just laid around and watched television for the rest of the night. What a shitty Saturday that was.

Sunday
Woke up at noon, just in time to catch the second half of the Pistons’ beat down of the Pacers. That made me happy. Then I was miserable as the Tigers lost their first game of the season. After that I booked a plain ticket home. So if any of you want to visit me, I will be in Detroit from June 9 to June 18. I expect drunkenness. That should be fun.

I talked myself out of working out and then went for a walk at 6, after the Masters was over. While walking, I got an idea for a screenplay I want to write. The working title is “Kevin and Ahmed go to Burger King”. It’s about two loveable stoners making a munchie trip, only things go horribly wrong. But it will be funny. And original.

Then I worked a bit, went to Subway, came home, watched TV and decided to write this amazingly interesting blog entry.

I have no lessons to pass on tonight, other than Hogan Knows Best is a pretty good show and The Simpsons haven’t had a classic episode in at least five years. They aren’t bad now, but there is nothing quotable from the show anymore. There was a time when your knowledge of Simpson’s quotes shared a distinct relationship with your worth as a man. Sad to say that those times are gone and that just makes me feel a little bit older.

Posted by Dan Nied at 02:14 AM | Comments (0)

April 07, 2006

Day 92

Stupid scale doesn't know what its talking about

What I ate today

Breakfast (10:15)
3 servings of Special K
3 servings of skim milk
Calories: 570
Fat: 0 grams

Lunch (1 p.m.)
2 slices of multi grain bread
2 servings of roast beef
2 servings of fat free mayo
Calories: 320
Fat: 5 grams

Snack (4 p.m.)
1 bag of beef jerkey
Calories: 280
Fat: 1.5 grams

Dinner (6:30 p.m.)
1 foot long Subway Club
Calories: 640
Fat: 12 grams

Snack (9:45 p.m.)
2 servings of baby carrots
Calories: 70
Fat: 0 grams

Total calories: 1,880
Total fat: 18.5 grams

Exercise: full body workout, 40 minutes on elliptical machine, burned 800 calories.

Here’s a nice little tidbit about my life. Tomorrow, my landlords are bringing in some guys to put in a nice new kitchen window. That is great and all, but the only window in the kitchen is blocked 100 percent by the refrigerator. I have never even looked out that window. Meanwhile, my apartment has no garbage disposal, a balcony door that won’t lock and is blown open by the slightest gust of wind, a broken bathroom sink drain (which I should get them to fix). Also, running water is a crapshoot. Sometimes you get it, sometimes you don’t. But that kitchen window, apparently, is long overdue.

Another lesson today: stay away from the scale. Apparently somewhere between Tuesday and Thursday I put on 10 pounds. The scale that told me I weighed 302 Tuesday told me I weighed 312 today. But there was another scale, a brand new scale, that told me I weighed 310. Which to believe? I don’t really know. In fact, I don’t really care. Remember when I lost five pounds over the course of 24 hours? I do. And now, over the course of 48 hours (albeit with a pizza binge in there) I have gained 10. There are, however, certain variables that can explain this. Here they are:

1) When I weighed in Tuesday, I don’t think I had eaten for at least four hours. However, on Thursday, I ate lunch and drank a liter of water right before I went to the gym. Also, I had a heavy breakfast three hours earlier. And I hadn’t pooped yet, which is always good for a pound or two.

2) When I weighed in Tuesday it was right after a workout. Thursday it was right before. I don’t know how much working out affects your weight in real time, but for now, let’s say it affects it tremendously.

3) There was about a pound of cheese and a pound of pepperoni that I have to be accountable for. I think I was today.

I was not, and am not, discouraged by the 310 reading. It’s all fine and dandy to me. Actually, on Saturday, I would have been pumped up to weight 310 on Thursday. That would have been a four pound drop. Also, I don’t actually believe 310 is the right weight. However, I don’t really know what is. My best guess would be somewhere between 302 and 310, but that’s just me. I’m not living and dying by the scale, though I obviously do care what it says. I am at a point where I don’t need a scale for affirmation. I know what a good day is and I know what a bad day is. If I have many more good days than bad days, I will lose weight. That’s all there is to it.

And a 310 reading is actually losing weight. So even if that was the correct reading, I am doing pretty well. However, it is a bit of a kick in the nuts to get a 302 reading one day and a 310 reading the next, especially when you’ve already gone and bragged about it to readers of an internet journal. I guess there is a little bit of egg on my face. But don’t worry, I won’t eat the yoke.

So here is what I am proposing for the next week: Stay off the goddamn scale. Actually, this makes more sense. I’ll see if I can weigh in Friday and then stay off the scale until next Friday (Day 100) and then that’s it. Whatever that scale says is the final reading. But I am not about to beat myself up over this just because we’re getting close to the end of the 100 days. That’s just not my style.

Posted by Dan Nied at 12:47 AM | Comments (0)

April 06, 2006

Day 91

Got a chance to think today while lying on the couch in pain

What I ate today: Look, I’m getting a little tired of doing the journal. It’s kind of a pain in the ass for me and takes longer to do than writing the actual entry. But I do realize its importance. So here’s the deal: It is still part of this and will show up on most days. However, tonight, my heart just isn’t in it. Sorry. Let’s estimate about 1,500 calories for today.

Exercise: None. We have a small problem here. While I have been working out three days a week lately, I have found it very easy to talk myself out exercise. This is bad. It isn’t a dire situation, but something that needs to be corrected as soon as possible.

News and notes: There are new pictures up on the site. They were taken by coworker Jen, the gray shirt pics are from Tuesday and the black shirt pics are from Wednesday. I need a haircut in both sets. Please leave comments as to how you think I look. I don't notice too much of a difference. Also, I said it earlier, but just a reminder. I will continue this blog until I lose 100 pounds. So it will not end April 14, as was originally scheduled. I figure it will probably go until June.

Here’s a fun game to play when you are done watching South Park on Wednesdays. Watch the first segment of the insipid Mind of Mencia and try to predict the exact time Carlos Mencia says the word “beaner” for the first time. I have played three times and been right each time. Tonight I had 11:35 in the office pool. He almost made it to 11:36, but then brought it home for me with a “beaner” that didn’t even fit into his so called joke. A fan of Carlos Mencia I am not. But the game is so easy, and it makes you very proud when you are right.

So that pizza from yesterday was a bad idea. Actually I don’t know if the pizza itself was a bad idea, but the things I did to it definitely were. Here’s my dirty little secret: I put some extra cheese and pepperoni on that thing. In fact, a good portion of the crust is sitting in my garbage can right now. There isn’t nearly as much cheese left, and I think the extra pepperoni was demolished last night. So perhaps the sheer volume of cheese that I ate last night contributed to today’s couch-inducing stomach pains. Almost certainly it rendered the Pepto Bismol useless.

But it did get me thinking. Last night I talked about the possibility of giving up shitty food altogether. Around noon Wednesday I was certain that it was going to happen. Now, at 11:49 p.m. mountain time, I am thinking that it would be a very good idea to at least try to totally eliminate pizza, burgers, fries and other greasy foods from my life. I shouldn’t be relying on a bottle of Pepto Bismol to get me through a weekend. And for this weight loss to stick, this has to be a complete lifestyle change.

Now, don’t get the wrong idea here. I am not talking about eating 1200 calories a day for the rest of my life. I am saying that pasta, chicken and other less greasy foods need to eventually be a bigger part of my life. My theory, which has been proven by others who have completely changed their eating habits, is that eventually not ever eating shit will become second nature to me. In fact, I can see it already with this quest. Now when I wake up in the morning, I am not thinking about sausage or bacon. I am actually looking forward to two servings of Special K. When I eat like shit, like I did Tuesday, it is a result of a conscious choice I make sometime over the course of a day. It is a decision now, and not a reaction. Also, it has become something that I actually think about, weighing pros and cons and trying to make an informed decision based on long term consequences and short term gratification. So how hard would it be to just give up on pizza and burgers? I don’t think it would be that difficult. There are other options that are just as gratifying.

As I lay on the couch Wednesday afternoon certain that I would soon be dead from stomach trauma, I repeated the phrase “It’s not worth it.” I repeated that phrase because, indeed, it wasn’t worth it to eat that pizza for a half hour and then be disabled for four hours the next day. And maybe those stomach pains wouldn’t have happened without the extra cheese and pepperoni, but I’m glad they did. Those pains made me think about the long term consequences for my stomach if I keep up that sort of thing. So right now I think the best thing for me would be to stay away from certain pain and remember that cheating doesn’t mean binge eating.

This is a learning experience for me, so I guess its time I get to learning.

This is one of my old shirts that now fits me! I love this shirt. My ex girlfriend told me I wasn't allowed to wear it because I looked to hot in it. I think she was blowing smoke up my ass, but you can be the judge.

Posted by west at 02:27 AM | Comments (0)

Cocky sonuvabitch

I am feeling very confident in this photo

Posted by west at 02:25 AM | Comments (0)

Still available

Ladies, you might want to scoop me up while you have your chance.

Posted by west at 02:19 AM | Comments (0)

I don't look normal here

I look like I just got off the short bus and crapped my pants on the second step.

Posted by west at 02:17 AM | Comments (0)

Sweet gray shirt, man!

This shirt also didn't used to fit. I think if I wasn't so fucking ugly, I could be a model.

Posted by west at 02:14 AM | Comments (0)

Dan in a hot black shirt

This is one of my old shirts that now fits me! I love this shirt. My ex girlfriend told me I wasn't allowed to wear it because I looked to hot in it. I think she was blowing smoke up my ass, but you can be the judge.

Posted by west at 02:08 AM | Comments (0)

April 05, 2006

Day 90

Could you read that weight back to me again?

Alright, what’s up people. No diary today, but I ate only one thing of consequence. A few days ago my boy Cameron told me that there is a pizza with whole wheat crust, that has 25 percent less fat and calories. So I had that for dinner.

Now, two aspects of this pizza are interesting and I will list and explain them here in a conveniently numbered fashion:

1) This was a celebration pizza. Why am I celebrating on Day 90? Because it seems like the right thing to do. Yesterday I talked about the scale in the mens locker room and how it supposedly is four pounds heavy. So after my workout today I was talking with one of the coaches, who also helps run the gym (Sadly his last day is today. Goodbye young Michael Sybrant. We hardly knew ye.) And I got on the scale in front of him. He mentioned the four pound discrepancy.

Again, the scale said 308 which seemed weird. Sybrant said I should use the scale in the weight room (a scale I had been avoiding due to its much more public location). He then left the room. I decided that I was fucking sick of not actually knowing what my weight was. I mean, it is a pretty important piece of information and I felt this locker room scale was really jerking me around. So I stormed up to the weight room and took off my shoes. I got on that scale expecting 315 or something. It said 302. I was pissed off again because I thought that was way too low.

There happened to be a volleyball player there working out. I knew her a bit, so yelled across the room “Hey, Callie, you know how much you weigh?” She said yes. So I said “Come get on this scale. I need to know if it works.” Well, Callie vouched for the scale’s accuracy. So I got on again, this time with Callie as a witness. It was 302. I got down with a look of bewilderment on my face.

“Did you gain some weight?” Callie asked.

“No, actually I think I lost 10 pounds,” I said.

She was confused. I explained that that seemed like too much weight to be losing. But that also meant that I had lost 68 pounds in 90 days. She didn’t understand why I looked so sad.

“That’s good, isn’t it?” she said.

I was convinced. It was good. I was happy. Granted, I didn’t get down to 300, and getting down to 302 was something I wasn’t remotely ready for. But I still counted it as a huge victory. I know that yesterday I said that the numbers don’t matter. Well I call shenanigans on that bullshit. The numbers matter way more than I want to let on. And now I know that I can get under 300 in the next 10 days. I’m rockin’ out with my cock out at 295 on April 14. Take that shit to the bank.

So I celebrated the way I always celebrate getting down around 300. With a pizza. Actually, I was planning on getting a pizza even before the weigh in. The reason was to test my stomach when aided by a little Pepto Bismol. I didn’t want to ruin next weekend by keeling over in pain at a bar. That would be bad. So it is time to learn some things about my body. What I can eat, what I can’t eat, and to what degree Pepto Bismol will help in dire situations. But, the pizza also got me thinking, and that brings us to:

2) The second matter of interest with this whole wheat crust pizza. After I ate it and took two shots of Pepto Bismol, I realized that my stomach wasn’t really knotting up. (It’s been five hours since the pie, so there is still a chance I will wake up in phenomenal pain sometime during the night.) But at the same time, I also realized that I didn’t have to eat that shit. I’ve talked with a few healthy people about the stomach pains and they all knew exactly what I was talking about. They said they just stayed away from that kind of stuff. So if they can do it, why can’t I? Can Dan Nied live a life without melted cheese and red meat? Can it be done? Can I stick to white meat and pasta at restaurants? Is this something I want to do? I think it might be worth it to try. Because even though my stomach isn’t knotting up right now, I can definitely say that I am not feeling all that good. Damn, I started this just trying to lose weight. I am ending it with an actual lifestyle change. Cruel reality.

I’ll go into a little more detail tomorrow about the potential of me swearing off red meat and grease forever. Also, there were new pictures taken today and I see no reason why they shouldn’t be up on the site by Thursday morning. So you have that to look forward to.

Posted by Dan Nied at 02:46 AM | Comments (0)

April 04, 2006

Day 89

The scale is wrong

What I ate today

Breakfast (11 a.m.)
2 servings of apple cinnamon oatmeal
Calories: 220
Fat: 3 grams

Lunch (3 p.m.)
1 package of beef jerky
Calories: 280
Fat: 1.75 grams

Snack (4 p.m.)
Sunflower seeds (I actually didn’t swallow many seeds. I just sucked on them. That’s alright, right?)
Calories: ??
Fat: ??

Dinner (7:30 p.m.)
1 foot long Subway club
Calories: 640
Fat: 12 grams

Total Calories: 1,140 +
Total fat: 16.75 + grams

Exercise: 40 minutes on elliptical machine. However, I didn’t lift. That sucks.

So I had some sunflower seeds today. I think I came up with a pretty good deal on those. If you eat 2/3 of a cup, which is one serving (by the way, I am pretty sure I didn’t get close to that), they are 160 calories and 14 grams of fat. I am assuming all of that is in the seed because, really, who eats the shell? First I had a very small handful and ate the seeds, so that was probably a few grams of fat right there. Then I got another handful, sucked on the shells and spit the seeds out. Still, while I was doing that I couldn’t help but feel guilty. Correct me if I’m wrong, but nutritional information applies only to things you swallow, right?

Anyway, baseball season always brings on a rash of sunflower seeds. The spring is the only time I eat them, but still I find them very enjoyable.

I also got a bit of information about the scale I’ve been using today. According to one of the directors of the gym, the scale in the mens locker room is four pounds heavy. So that means that if I weighed in at 312 today, then I am actually 308. I am not exactly jumping for joy on that one, but it isn’t bad, I guess. Still, until they get a new scale in there, I’ll stick with what that scale says for official readings.

And I did officially weight in today. But I had to do it twice. The aforementioned scale has been kind of screwy lately. The first time I got on it said 308, which would be a nearly impossible seven pound drop from last Wednesday. So I got on again and it was just under 312. That three pound drop is much more believable. But the point is that I lost somewhere between three and seven pounds in the last five days, and I’m pretty happy about that.

The official total for right now is 58 pounds, however I guess that, if you take the 308 reading as fact and then factor in the four pound curve for the scale, I could say that I’ve lost 66 pounds.

Really, I’m not worried about that at all. The important thing isn’t the amount of weight I’ve lost to this point, it is the simple fact that the number keeps coming down. That’s what I care about. So if its 58 or 66 I don’t give a shit. As long as its at least 59 or 67 next week. This whole thing isn’t really about numbers, I’ve realized.

Anyway, I am hoping to get some new pictures up on the site very soon. So hopefully you can see what I look like either 58 or 66 pounds lighter. I’m hoping for a big improvement.

Posted by Dan Nied at 01:23 AM | Comments (0)

April 03, 2006

Days 86, 87 and 88

I got some new old clothes!

What I ate today: I’m not gonna run it down, but I have a headache because I had freezer surprise for dinner tonight, trying to get rid of the old packages of chicken and fish that have been up there for about a year. What I ended up eating was two chicken filets (at least a year old), a fat free hot dog and some sort of fish. I actually got dizzy. Amazing.

Exercise: None. I blame daylight savings time.

I had a big Saturday night. I gathered all of my out-of-rotation clothes and tried each item on. The point, obviously, was to figure out what fits now and what I’m still too fat for. Good news: I increased my wardrobe by about 200 percent. I found at least six formerly tight button-up shirts that fit just fine now. Also there are a few old t shirts that are suddenly much more comfortable. My favorite black polo shirt is back in the rotation as is the polo shirt that my mother sent me for my birthday (in August) that I never got to wear.

So I’m happy about that.

One of the most embarrassing things about being fat (and poor) is the wardrobe. Since it is impossible to be 370 pounds and look good, I went for comfort. So basically, I wore the loosest fitting things I could find. That, of course, made me look even fatter. As I got bigger and bigger, certain shirts would become smaller and smaller. So slowly my wardrobe shrunk to three dress shirts, one pair of khakis, one pair of jeans and some undershirts. I’ve been recycling those for the past year. I think the jig was up about 11 months ago. That was really embarrassing because not only was I fat, I looked like a slob (which, of course I was, is and will always be.) So it is incredibly nice to simply fit into some old stuff again.

However, be warned. My friends will undoubtedly leave postings about how my wardrobe was never very diversified in the first place. I admit I’ve never had any moral dilemmas about rewearing shirts, or pants or sometimes underwear. But I am hoping that this will all change. I have a feeling that as my waistline shrinks and my income grows (its gotta grow eventually, right?) I’ll become more interested in fashion. After all, I’m 26 and single. Time is sort of ticking away. I gotta start looking good so I can get me a lady friend someday.

I had a shot at making a lady friend today. Well, sort of. While I was doing laundry the one cute girl I’ve seen in my building happened to be down there with me, unloading her washer while I was trying to find one for my soiled whites.

So we had a magical moment.

For one second, our eyes almost met, but I managed to keep mine at a 45 degree angle away from hers.

“By any chance,” I said, “Are you done with that washer.”

“Yes,” she said.

She was stoic in her response, but something about it told me she was fluttering inside.

The last thing I said to her was “thanks. So yeah, I fucking blew it. You know, I’ve never been shy. My college roommates might still be virgins if I wasn’t always breaking the ice with girls at the bar. During the course of one school year, I got my roommate laid at least three times, simply by being the kind of outgoing party guy I am. And maybe alcohol had something to do with my courage in those situations, but those weren’t isolated. Granted, I stumbled a bit sober, but still managed to talk up any girl I was interested in. So why, now, am I such a pussy?

I chalk it up to being in this town. I am reluctant to start anything with anyone with associations here in Bumfuck, Colorado. Isn’t that some pretty shallow thinking on my part. This girl in the laundry room was certainly close to my age and she seemed like a transplant to this town. She would have been a good person to talk to. Maybe I’ll get that chance again, but in all probability I won’t.

Seize the day, right? That’s the cliche. I had the chance, and now I probably won’t ever know what this person is like. And you know, that kinda sucks.

Posted by Dan Nied at 02:57 AM | Comments (0)